Uprooted Palestinians are at the heart of the conflict in the M.E Palestinians uprooted by force of arms. Yet faced immense difficulties have survived, kept alive their history and culture, passed keys of family homes in occupied Palestine from one generation to the next.

Saturday, 13 September 2014

Obama Declares War on Syria

Invoking the same ominous language as his predecessor, Barack Obama used a prime time presidential address on Wednesday to announce the beginning of a war on Syria. And while there’s no doubt that many Americans will be confused by Obama’s misleading focus on the terrorist organization named ISIL, the real purpose of the speech was to garner support for another decade of homicidal conflicts in the Middle East. The administration is as determined as ever to plunge the region into chaos, erase existing borders, and install its puppets wherever it can. ISIL–which is mainly an invention of western Intel agencies and their treacherous counterparts in the Gulf– conveniently creates the justification for another bloody invasion followed by years of occupation, subjugation, and revolt.

Barack Obama:

My fellow Americans — tonight, I want to speak to you about what the United States will do with our friends and allies to degrade and ultimately destroy the terrorist group known as ISIL. As commander-in-chief, my highest priority is the security of the American people…..

Thanks to our military and counterterrorism professionals, America is safer.

Still, we continue to face a terrorist threat. We cannot erase every trace of evil from the world, and small groups of killers have the capacity to do great harm. That was the case before 9/11, and that remains true today. That’s why we must remain vigilant as threats emerge.

Get it? We are all in great peril and only our loving father, Obama, can save us. Where have we heard that before?

Obama: “In a region that has known so much bloodshed, these terrorists are unique in their brutality. They execute prisoners. They kill children. They enslave, rape, and force women into marriage…..If left unchecked, these terrorists could pose a growing threat beyond that region — including to the United States.”

This is pure demagoguery, the likes of which we haven’t heard since Bush’s ”The Axis of Evil” speech. The truth is, ISIL poses NO threat to US national security at all. It’s a joke. Readers should mull that over before they throw their support behind Obama’s proposed crusade in Syria..

More Obama: “First, we will conduct a systematic campaign of airstrikes against these terrorists…..I will not hesitate to take action against ISIL in Syria, as well as Iraq. This is a core principle of my presidency: if you threaten America, you will find no safe haven…..”

Okay, so borders don’t matter, international law doesn’t matter, national sovereignty doesn’t matter. What matters is oil, money and power. Isn’t that what he’s saying? He’s asking the American people to support another millennia of killing so he can pad the bank accounts of corrupt US oil magnates while strengthening America’s tenuous grip on global power. Would you be willing to sacrifice your son’s life for such a cause?

Obama: “Across the border, in Syria, we have ramped up our military assistance to the Syrian opposition. Tonight, I again call on Congress to give us additional authorities and resources to train and equip these fighters.”

So, now Obama wants to arm and train the same terrorists which the CIA and our enlightened friends in the Gulf States recruited from around the world. Sounds like a good plan, doesn’t it? What could go wrong?

Obama: “This is our strategy….. Secretary Kerry was in Iraq today meeting with the new government and supporting their efforts to promote unity, and in the coming days he will travel across the Middle East and Europe to enlist more partners in this fight.”

So, Senator Botox and his gaggle of neocons are going to fix everything, just like they did in Kiev. Now I am worried.

Obama: “But I want the American people to understand how this effort will be different from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It will not involve American combat troops fighting on foreign soil. This counter-terrorism campaign will be waged through a steady, relentless effort to take out ISIL wherever they exist, using our air power and our support for partner forces on the ground.”

No American “boots on the ground”?? Is that what he said? What he meant to say was no boots on the ground until after the midterms. After that, the sky’s the limit!

Don’t kid yourself, the Obama claque is as determined to topple Assad as Bush was determined to remove Saddam. That’s why Obama’s public relations team decided to use the prestige of a primetime presidential speech –with all the pompous trappings of high-office–to make their case. It’s because their real target is the American people who are being led by the nose into another hellish bloodbath.

Obama: “American leadership is the one constant in an uncertain world. It is America that has the capacity and the will to mobilize the world against terrorists.”

Oh boy. American troublemaking is the “one constant” in this world, even death and taxes take a back seat to that. America started the war on terror. (Blowback) America perpetuated the war on terror. (check the globe. The US is fighting wars everywhere.) And America is entirely responsible for the war on terror. (Afghanistan, Mujahedin) And now–after 13 years of unlawful detentions, black sites, Abu Ghraib, Gitmo, death squads, waterboarding, illegal surveillance, drone attacks, and a mountain of carnage that stretches halfway to the moon– Obama is re-launching the War on Terror under the opaque sobriquet “ISIL”. Haven’t we had enough of this garbage yet?

As always, the media seems entirely mystified as to the administration’s real intentions. In contrast, analyst Patrick Martin at the World Socialist Web Site sees through the hoax and sums it up like this in an article titled “Obama announces open-ended war in Iraq and Syria”. Here’s an excerpt:

“It was only 12 months ago that Obama tried and failed to create the political conditions for US air strikes against the Assad regime, making allegations of the use of nerve gas weapons that were later discredited. Now Obama is seeking to achieve the same goal by a different route, using ISIS as a pretext to get American military forces into Syria, where they will become the spearhead of the campaign to oust Assad and install a pro-US stooge regime in Damascus.”

He's an Oxford Research Group associate. It's dedicated to developing effective methods for positive change on security issues through non-violent means.

She was "inspired by the life and work of Dr. Barghouti whose commitment to nonviolence, in his personal and public life, is truly in the Ghandian spirit."

Honoring Barghouti "would be a recognition of not only his great spirit of peace and nonviolence, but also the Palestinian Nonviolent Movement, which gives us all hope for the future of Palestine, Israel and the Middle East Community," she explained.

Britain's parliament passed a motion. It paid tribute to his nomination.

It cited his "invaluable role…in organizing and encouraging Palestinian civil society in the fundamental principles of non-violence."

It acknowledged "the tirelessness of his activities in the face of so many seemingly insurmountable obstacles that face all Palestinians living under Israeli occupation whether that be in the West Bank or imprisoned in Gaza."

In 2010, France awarded Barghouti its Legion of Honor (Legion d'Honneur). Napoleon established it in May 1802.

It was the first modern-day order of merit. It's France's highest honor. It's awarded for excellent civil or military service.

Throughout Operation Protective Edge (OPE), Barghouti debunked the official narrative.

He denounced Israeli high crimes. He separated myths from reality.

War didn't start in Gaza, he said. It began in the West Bank. It had nothing to do with Hamas rockets.

Israel bears full responsibility. It does so for state-sponsored terrorism.

The dominant narrative called it self-defense. Justifiable Palestinian resistance is called terrorism.

During OPE, Israel rampaged throughout the territories. It did so multiple times daily.

It terrorized West Bank/East Jerusalem communities. It invaded over 3,000 homes.

It ransacked them. It destroyed many. It stole money and other personal possessions.

It used tear gas, stun grenades, rubber-coated steel bullets and live fire against peaceful Palestinian demonstrators.

It arrested over 1,000 Palestinians. They included parliamentarians doing their jobs.

Nearly three dozens are lawlessly imprisoned. They languish in Israel's gulag. Conditions are brutal.

Torture is official Israeli policy. Horrific abuses are commonplace.

OPE was much more than war on Hamas. It was war on Palestine. It was collective punishment writ large.

Dozens of families were annihilated to the last man, woman and child.

Eight hospitals were attacked. So were clinics, ambulances and healthcare workers. Palestinian journalists were murdered in cold blood.

Obama and other world leaders ignored Israeli aggression. They defended its right to mass murder and destroy.

"(N)ot a single word" supported Palestinians' right of self-defense, said Barghouti.

"The Palestinians are the ones whose land has been occupied for 47 years, who have been forced into displacement and refugee status since 1948, (and who suffer) from a system of apartheid, discrimination and segregation created by the Israeli occupation."

Yet nothing is said in their behalf. Reality is turned on its head.

Israeli suffering is considered unique. Extreme Palestinian misery is ignored.

They dehumanized. Their lives and well-being aren't important. They faced the world's fourth most powerful army.

They did so with light arms and ineffective rockets. Israeli began OPE. It did so lawlessly.

Palestinians were victimized. It wasn't the first time. It won't be the last.

Instigators are called victims. Real ones are called perpetrators and terrorists.

Civilians suffer most in all wars. Palestinians suffer under the longest occupation in modern memory.

Palestine's longstanding struggle affects Israel, said Barghouti. "Israelis will never be free as long as we are not free," he stresses.

What's been ongoing for decades must stop, he says. "(I)mpunity and reality must be exposed."

Enough is enough! No longer can longstanding injustice continue. Things must change. The official Israeli narrative must be challenged.

"Please see the reality," says Barghouti. "Look at the facts."

Truths must replace fiction. Peace, equity, and justice can't wait.

The Palestinian Solidarity Campaign (PSC) champions Palestinian peace and stability. It deplores militarism, war and other forms of violence.

On September 9, Barghouti addressed PSC members. He did so in London. He discussed what he saw and experienced in Gaza.

"Thank you for everything you have done for Palestine and Gaza," he said.

"We have been watching the demonstrations. What you have done has given the people a great amount of moral support and I hope you can continue with this, because it is very important."

"(S)olidarity work" is vital, he stressed. "(W)e have a very, very big fight ahead of us."

No one can comprehend what happened without living it.

"No footage, no speech, no camera, no television can really show the reality that you can see with your own eyes," he said.

"Please go there if you can. It's so important for you to know the reality, and (vital) for (Gazans) to see you there."

"What happened is beyond description. Even describing it as an act of disproportionality is an insult to humanity. Describing it as an imbalance of power is also an insult."

"After slaughtering thousands of people and destroying thousands of homes and to speak about reconstruction and to immediately allow Israeli companies to make a profit from this is also an insult to humanity."

"What happened in Gaza, as has happened before in the West Bank is nothing but war crimes and crimes against humanity."

"What happened was nothing but massacres against the civilian population and Israel couldn't have done that without a feeling of impunity and without having impunity from international law, and this couldn't have happened if so many Western world leaders hadn't been complicit in what happened."

They support Israeli genocidal high crimes against peace. They ignore Palestinian suffering.

They do virtually nothing to relieve it. They let business as usual continue. Status quo conditions remain.

After endless days of meaningless discussions, Barghouti expressed disgust with "diplomatic talk."

He showed pictures of what he saw. It exceeded some of the worst WW II devastated areas in some places, he said.

"This was not about one house being destroyed and the house next to it being destroyed," he explained.

"This was intentional bombardment by the Israeli army and navy and air force to destroy whole neighborhoods."

Shujaya was completely destroyed. "It was a town. It was was a city with 150,000 people…"

"Every house, every clinic, every mosque, every building was destroyed."

"Even a home for people with disabilities was destroyed. The destruction was beyond belief, and it is there for people who want to see."

"They bombarded the graves." The bones of the dead became visible. "The amount of explosives they used was beyond description."

Tens of thousands of Gazans lost virtually everything. Their homes, belongings, money, papers, photos, passports, and memories unable to "be brought back even if there is reconstruction."

"That is what (Israel) did to people." It "insult(ed) humanity." It mass murdered Palestinians in cold blood.

Nearly half million Gazans lost their homes and personal possessions. Their loved ones are lost forever. Many still live in shelters. "In huge numbers."

"I almost cried when I was asked to see a girl in one of these shelters."

"She has cancer which has taken away her sight and she was half paralyzed. Her mother was with her also."

"She had to be inside the room with 50 other people. Very hot, very humid, no showers, no clean water."

That's what happened to these people when they went into these shelters."

"We found evidence of scabies, and gastroenteritis and hepatitis."

"Some people decided to live in the rubble rather than in the shelters, because it was so humiliating to live without any privacy."

"Sometimes they still find people who are dead under the destruction."

"Towers, high rises, they were all destroyed. Huge devastation."

"This building hosted 80 families. In two minutes, it was destroyed."

"There was a man, 82 years old, who told me he spent all his life building a house and a family."

"He had a house with four storys and 28 sons and daughters and grandchildren."

"He went to pray during Ramadan, one evening. He came back. The house was completely destroyed, his wife was killed."

"All the 28 sons and daughters and grandsons and granddaughters were killed."

"91 families were completely annihilated. 91 families were scratched from the civil records in these attacks."

If Gaza's population matched America's, "you('d) (have had) 400,000 killed and 1,934,000 injured, almost two million."

"(H)ow can a country that claims to be…civilized…that has a very special relationship with the United Kingdom, that keeps speaking about the right to defend itself, ask them, how can they be allowed to" commit mass murder and destruction with impunity.

Shrapnel from its explosives cut everything. It's "all over the place."

"It includes very dangerous material. Tungsten and other material that is carcinogenic, and depleted uranium."

Israel "tried to dehumanize us as Palestinians," said Barghouti. "First they tried to dehumanize Hamas, then all Palestinians. Netanyahu even has the guts to try and compare Hamas with ISIS."

"Israel shouldn't be allowed this level of impunity. Enough is enough. We have to take them to the International Criminal Court. The PLO must immediately sign the Rome Statute and take Israel to the ICC."

"(T)his inhumanity can't continue. There's only one way out." Boycott, divest, sanction, isolate and prosecute Israeli officials for high crimes against peace.

"(D)ismantle this occupation and this apartheid" once and for all. Afford Palestinians justice they've long been denied.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III."

The U.S. government is tracking and gathering intelligence on as many as 300 Americans who are fighting side by side with the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria and are poised to become a major threat to the homeland, according to senior U.S. officials.

Officials say concern is widespread in Washington that radicalized foreign fighters could return to the homeland and commit terrorist attacks with skills acquired overseas, according to officials who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the information. Those concerns were heightened by the disclosure Tuesday that a California man was killed fighting alongside militants with the group, also known as ISIS.

It is incredible because the United States’ National Security Agency (NSA) has not only been tapping and recording phone conversations of Americans for years, but also tracking phone locations as well. How is it that this massive, invasive, illegal, abhorrent surveillance control grid can be put in place, sold to the public as a necessity to “protect Americans” and “national security,” yet miss entire battalions of Americans signing up for and joining overseas, a terrorist organization like the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS)?

If the very scenarios the NSA uses to justify its abhorrent means have unfolded unimpeded, revealed only by “chance” with the passport of an American turning up in the pockets of dead terrorists upon an alleged battlefield in Syria, either the NSA’s existence serves another purpose, or the narrative we are being fed regarding the true nature of ISIS is a lie, or the most likely scenario – both.

Between NSA surveillance at home, and the CIA operating side-by-side with ISIS and other Al Qaeda-linked terrorist organizations, the sudden revelations that Americans are fighting within ISIS’ ranks seem to be more a matter of politically-motivated propaganda, timed perfectly to justify US military intervention in Syria, than a case of yet another convenient lapse in American intelligence.

“The short-term concern is the Americans that have gone to fight with ISIS and the west Europeans that have gone to fight with ISIS could be trained and directed by ISIS to come to the United States to conduct small-scale attacks,” Morell stated. “If an ISIS member showed up at a mall in the United States tomorrow with an AK-47 and killed a number of Americans, I would not be surprised.”

Morell warned that over the long-term the extremist group could be planning for a 9/11-style attack that killed thousands of Americans.

The same report would also claim:

The United States launched a new barrage of airstrikes Wednesday against the Islamic State extremist group that beheaded American journalist James Foley and that has seized a swath of territory across Iraq and Syria. President Barack Obama vowed relentless pursuit of the terrorists and the White House revealed that the U.S. had launched a secret rescue mission inside Syria earlier this summer that failed to rescue Foley and other Americans still being held hostage.

The current justification for ongoing preparations against Syria has been the Foley execution video, which experts have agreed upon was staged. The London Telegraph in its article, “Foley murder video ‘may have been staged’,” would state:

Analysts believe the British jihadi in the video may not have been James Foley’s killer, although it is accepted that the journalist was murdered.

Of course, if the video was staged, and every claim about it made by ISIS thus far proven a fabrication, no evidence at all suggests when and where, or even if Foley was murdered. If he was, no evidence suggests by whom. And despite this revelation, the US continues building momentum to intervene in Syria.Imperialism Hiding Behind Righteousness
Several years and hundreds of millions of dollars later, ISIS is clearly the product of long-laid Western designs to overthrow the Syrian government and reorder the Middle East as warned by the prophetic 2007 9-page report titled, “The Redirection: Is the Administration’s new policy benefitting our enemies in the war on terrorism?,” written by Seymour Hersh and published in the New Yorker. In it Hersh warned about a cataclysmic sectarian war that would ravage the entire region, targeting not only Syria and neighboring Lebanon, but also Iran. He also warned that it was an intentionally engineered conspiracy between the United States, Saudi Arabia, and Israel, with many smaller regional players serving in supporting roles.

With the emergence of ISIS creating the very cataclysmic sectarian conflagration warned about in Hersh’s 2007 report, with no other credible explanation to account for ISIS’ incredible size, strength, and success beyond multinational state-sponsorship, Hersh’s reportage has once again been vindicated.

It is clear that the US has created ISIS, and is to this day using it as both a means to target and attack its enemies across the Middle East, as well as serve as a pretext for direct US military intervention when proxy wars flounder. It is also being used in a third context – on the domestic front – as a manufactured and perpetual threat with which to further justify the militarization and centralization of America’s police forces and the continued expansion of the NSA’s invasive domestic spying.

It is also clear that all of this adds up not to promoting freedom and democracy abroad while ensuring national security at home, but rather achieving full-spectrum domination in regions abroad and over the population at home. It is naked hegemony and imperialism playing dress-up in the wardrobe of righteousness.

The Independent understands that the Liberal Democrats and Labour are reluctant to endorse air strikes in Syria, forcing the Prime Minister to think again. Last week, he argued that action in Syria would not need the support of the Assad regime, saying: “President Assad has committed war crimes on his own people and is therefore illegitimate.”

However, MPs believe there are serious legal doubts about action in Syria.

It followed Barack Obama’s announcement that the United States would extend its air strikes against Isis in Iraq to Syria. In a White House address, the US President vowed to "degrade and ultimately destroy" Isis and said almost 500 more US troops will be dispatched to Iraq to assist its security forces.

Mr Cameron wants to secure the approval of the Commons before launching air strikes. Soundings by whips suggest there could be a majority in the three main parties for action in Iraq, where the new Government is expected to request such intervention, but not in Syria. One Minister admitted: “For the Lib Dems and Labour, Syria is very different to Iraq.”

Nick Clegg and Ed Miliband are likely to back UK air strikes in Iraq if the US puts together a “coalition of the willing” that includes countries in the region. But they would baulk at a US-UK only operation.

Mr Cameron is anxious to avoid a repeat of his humiliating defeat a year ago, when the Commons voted by 285 to 272 to oppose air strikes against the Assad regime after it used chemical weapons against its own people.

Mr Hammond appeared to reflect the private soundings among MPs when he said in Germany: “Let me be clear, Britain will not be taking part in air strikes in Syria. I can be very clear about that. We have already had that discussion in our Parliament last year and we won't be revisiting that position."

But two hours later, Downing Street insisted: “The point he was making was that last year Parliament expressed its view with regard to taking action with air strikes against the Assad regime. In terms of air power and the like, the Prime Minister has not ruled anything out. That is the position. No decisions have been taken in that regard."

One option would be for the Government to give political support to US air strikes in Syria but to restrict UK military support to Iraq.

Sir Menzies Campbell, the former Liberal Democrat leader, who is also a QC, said: “If a suitable alliance can be formed, there may well be support in Parliament for British participation in offensive action against Isis in Iraq. But Syria poses rather different problems. Without an invitation from Assad, which is wholly unlikely, or a [UN] Security Council resolution, which is equally improbable, military action in Syria against Isis could be regarded as being illegal.”

Sir Menzies added: “The question for Britain, and anyone else who became part of an alliance, would be whether they were willing to join in with the Americans, who almost certainly would not feel constrained by international law to the same extent as European countries.”

Demanding a Commons statement, he said: "This reinforces the need for the Government to state clearly its policy to Parliament given that there appears to be a disparity between the Foreign Secretary and No 10. The issue of air strikes in Syria is of seminal importance."

Mr Cameron’s official spokesman welcomed the strategy outlined by Mr Obama. "We need to deal with Isil both in terms of Iraq and in terms of Syria so we are very supportive of that approach,” he said. But he added: "In terms of specific decisions about participation in further action, we are not at the stage of taking those decisions."

Abbas blocks ICC application. Why?

In June, a recording was leaked in which Saeeb Erekat, the Palestinian Chief Prosecutor claimed that Abbas had promised the Israeli Premier Benyamin Netanyahu not to make the application to the International Criminal Court.

A curious piece of theatre took place outside the Chief Prosecutor’s Office in the International Criminal Court in The Hague on August 5. This was 28 days into Israel’s attack on Gaza, just over half way through, and the Palestinian foreign minister banged the drum.

Riad al-Maliki told the media that there was “clear evidence of war crimes” in the attack and he was in The Hague to “get acquainted with the work of the ICC” and “find out what is really required… for Palestine to become a member of the court.”

Fellow Palestinian ministers scratched their heads. Maliki knew what to do. It had already been done six days before. I can reveal a legal application had been submitted to the ICC by the Palestinian Justice Minister Saleem al-Saqqa and the General Prosecutor of the Court of Justice in Gaza, Ismail Jabr on July 30.

The ICC was puzzled too. Inside the meeting, Fatou Bensouda and her deputy prosecutor James Stewart wanted to know whether the application they had received on July 30 from al-Saqqa and Jabr had been made in the name of the Palestinian Authority.

This was the chief remaining legal impediment, since the UN General Assembly voted to accept Palestine as an observer state at the UN.

Their jaws dropped when Maliki told them that al-Saqqa and Jabr were not acting on the authority of unity government, the Palestinian Authority, nor President Mahmoud Abbas.

Stewart confirmed the meeting in a letter to the pair’s french lawyers, which I have obtained.

He wrote:

On 5 August, 2014, I met the Minister for Foreign Affairs for Palestine HE Mr Riad Maliki where I provided clarifications he requested on the different mechanisms for a State to accept jurisdiction of the ICC and regarding the legal framework of the Rome Statute. At that meeting, I sought to confirm whether or not your communication dated 30 July 2014 was transmitted on behalf of the Palestinian Authority, as a result of which I did not receive a positive confirmation. Accordingly there is no legal basis for my Office to consider and/or treat the 30 July 2014 communication as emanating from a representative of Palestine endowed with the required full powers to seize the Court’s jurisdiction pursuant to article 12(3) of the Statute.

Maliki’s purpose in flying to The Hague in the middle of a devastating Israeli bombardment was to stop a legal application for Palestinian membership of the ICC going ahead. Why?

Consider the date – August 5. Two days after that, Hamas decided to put its signature to a Palestinian declaration to join the ICC, incurring the risk of coming under a war crimes action itself for indiscriminate rocket fire from Gaza. That decision was leaked to the Middle East Eye on August 11.

Abbas knew that once that decision was made public, he could not use other Palestinian groups as a fig leaf for his own reluctance to sign up to the ICC. Hamas’ move robbed him of that excuse. So he sent al- Maliki to the Hague to stop it.

Why again? That is harder to answer. The strategy of using the UN and accession to international bodies to advance Palestinian statehood is his. Why would he, of all people, be blocking it?

He knows that Israel is really concerned about a war crimes case starting and is already rushing moves to prevent this from happening. To forestall an impending ICC investigation Israel’s attorney general and military advocate are setting up their own investigations into the campaign on Gaza.

As The New York Times reported today:

The investigation process may also be intended to counter threats by the Palestinian leadership to join the International Criminal Court for the purpose of holding Israel accountable for its actions as an occupying power. The court generally only investigates cases where the country involved is unwilling or unable to investigate itself.

So Abbas is trying to apply the brakes at the very moment when signing the Rome Treaty of 2002 is a matter of urgency. Senior Fatah leaders have long suspected Abbas’ motives for delaying the ICC application. Abbas has consistently used accession to the ICC as a bargaining chip with Israel. Fatah official Nabil Shaath told the Palestinian news agency Ma’an that Abbas would activate its application to the ICC if the UN Security Council rejected a demand to set a three year deadline for Israeli withdrawal to its 1967 borders.

In June, a recording was leaked in which Saeeb Erekat, the Palestinian Chief Prosecutor claimed that Abbas had promised the Israeli Premier Benyamin Netanyahu not to make the application.

Erekat allegedly said:

Abu Mazen [Abbas], if you want to move Netanyahu, work on the [application] documents for international institutions. He said: I made a commitment’ [not to apply to international institutions]. What commitment have you made? This isn’t your daddy’s farm! This is a nation, this is Palestine. This is bigger than individuals. He didn’t listen to me. I swear, I submitted my resignation twice.

Abbas and Netanyahu met again secretly in Amman days before the ceasefire was announced, although both sides have denied this. The sole subject of conversation was how to stop Hamas claiming victory.

Since then, Abbas reverted to blaming Hamas for the faltering unity government claiming they have not yet relinquished power to his ministers in Gaza. This, again, is a curious claim to make because the ministers themselves have stayed in Ramallah and have not tried to exercise their duties in Gaza. Neither has Abbas himself turned up.

In both the unity agreement and the ceasefire, Hamas handed Abbas important cards to play: the militant group accepted that PA troops could man the border with Egypt at Rafah, that Abbas ministers — all of whom are his appointees — could run Gaza, and that Abbas could take credit for the lifting of the siege of Gaza if and when a seaport is open and an airport built.

Hamas gave Abbas had the opportunity of playing the role of Palestinian President in Gaza itself. Instead the Palestinian president whose own mandate has run out, is trying now to rattle the unity agreement with Hamas to bits. Trying to counter the surge in Palestinian support for Hamas — Fatah members are flocking to join Hamas in the West Bank — is more important to him than ending the impunity Israel enjoys international law. Personal ambition which will never see the light of day — Abbas’s plan for an Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank in three years — trumps the collective Palestinian search for justice.

Abbas is at least consistent. He is treating the ICC application in the same way as he initially tried to oppose the Goldstone Inquiry into a previous Israeli military campaign in Gaza.

Remember the outrage when the PA, under pressure from the US and Israel, abruptly halted its drive to take the Goldstone report, which accused both Israel and Hamas of war crimes, to the ICC. The PA had initially urged the UN human rights council to refer the issue to the UN Security Council, which could in theory ask the ICC to open a war crimes prosecution.

Later the Palestinian Papers revealed why this had happened. Senator Mitchell presented Erekat with a document containing language that would nullify the chance to prosecute Israeli officials for war crimes in Gaza at the ICC.Mitchell’s paper stated:

The PA will help to promote a positive atmosphere conducive to negotiations; in particular during negotiations it will refrain from pursuing or supporting any initiative directly or indirectly in international legal forums that would undermine that atmosphere.

Erekat, Abbas and the Palestinian Authority accepted this and agreed to call for a deferral of the UNHRC vote.

Palestinians are not blessed with their leaders but this is not the ICC’s fault. When The Guardian claimed that the ICC was coming under international pressure to avoid a war crimes investigation, Bensouda was rightly indignant.

She wrote:

…the statute is not one of the treaties that Palestine has decided to accede to, nor has it lodged a new declaration following the November 2012 general assembly resolution. It is a matter of public record that Palestinian leaders are in the process of consulting internally on whether to do so; the decision is theirs alone and as ICC prosecutor, I cannot make it for them.

Only too true.

This article was first published on the Huffington Post on September 11th 2014.

_____________________________

David Hearst is Editor of Middle East Eye, a website which brings a fresh vision to the region. He was chief foreign leader writer of The Guardian, former Associate Foreign Editor, European Editor, Moscow Bureau Chief, European Correspondent, and Ireland Correspondent. He joined The Guardian, from The Scotsman, where he was education correspondent.